Is Your Agency Ghosting You? Federal EEO Complaint Process Delays.

Has this happened to you? You experienced what you believe is discrimination or retaliation. You did the right thing: you contacted your agency’s EEO office to initiate informal counseling within the 45-day window. Then… silence. You’ve sent follow-up emails. You’ve left voicemails. No counselor has been assigned, and the "informal stage" seems to have turned into a black hole.

At InformedFED, we are encountering a significant increase in "agency ghosting" in 2026 and expect this to cntinue until at least 2028. With the recent reductions in force and hiring freezes affecting internal Civil RIghts and EEO offices and shifting agency priorities, and a general flagrant disregard of the law, many federal employees are finding that the internal agency "safety net" for civil rights and EEO is either dormant, or gone altogether. A great example is the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) personnel chaos. As a direct result of the chaos, HHS EEO and HR offices are so understaffed and dysfunctional, the agency has largely stopped responding to inquiries concerning the intake or status of EEO complaints. Some e-mail auto-responses our clients received actually state the EEO offices have been RIF'd. In the most recent situation we encountered, after approximately 58 days, we received a response for our client and then they repeatedly reassigned the EEO Complaint and ultimately stopped responding. Ultimately, we had to bypass the published process on behalf of our client and utilize a third-party HHS EEO electronic filing portal that was previously offline and buried in the HHS public facing website.

The 30-Day Rule: You Don’t Have to Wait Forever with Federal EEO complaint process delays

Many employees believe they must wait for the agency to "give them permission" to file a formal complaint. This is a mistake.

Under 29 C.F.R. § 1614.105, the informal counseling period is prescribed to last only 30 calendar days from you initial contact date with the agency (unless you agree to an extension up to 90 days for ADR). If you experience Federal EEO complaint process delays and your agency has not issued you a "Notice of Right to File" within that timeframe, they are in regulatory default. Per EEOC Management Directive 110 (MD-110), if the agency fails to complete counseling on time, you have the right to bypass their delays and file your formal complaint immediately.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait

Waiting for an unresponsive EEO office puts your case at risk:

• Evidence Fades: Documents are deleted, and witnesses move to other agencies.

• Retaliation Continues: Without a formal complaint on the record, it is harder to establish a "nexus" for a subsequent retaliation claim.

• Jurisdictional Hurdles: If you wait too long, the agency might later try to claim you "abandoned" the process.

How InformedFED Can Help

Navigating the EEO process in the "new normal" of 2026 and beyond requires more than just knowing the rules—it requires significant specialized experience. We specialize in taking the "complicated" and making it "actionable."

If your agency is ignoring your EEO outreach, we can help you draft a demand letter that cites the specific regulatory failures and forces your complaint into the formal investigation stage.

Don't let a dysfunctional or non-compliant agency silence your lawful EEO claim by ignoring your emails and calls.

Stop waiting for a response that isn't coming. Contact InformedFED today for a free consultation.